


A Collective Sigh of Relief

by ThirdGenerationRockette



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Post S2, Third Party POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 22:30:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13727322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThirdGenerationRockette/pseuds/ThirdGenerationRockette
Summary: Looking across the room, his gaze lands on Will and Mackenzie, and his mind is blown all over again. Zero to engaged in one evening, and during a seven minute commercial break, no less.





	A Collective Sigh of Relief

**Jim**

It’s been a long night. Long day, really, that became a long night, and he’s glad to finally escape to a seat for a few minutes, telling the exhausted looking junior producer that he can take fifteen minutes from the news desk, he’ll step in. He knows the news alerts need only a half-hearted eye right now, it’s mostly just a stream of election feed, all of which they’ve no doubt covered, but he’s happy to sit where he has a view of the room, of the post-broadcast celebrations slowly starting to wind down. He’s worried about Maggie, and kicking himself for not realising how bad things were for her, but there’s a vague sense of relief creeping in now he knows she and Lisa have talked.

Looking across the room, his gaze lands on Will and Mackenzie, and his mind is blown all over again. Zero to engaged in one evening, and during a seven minute commercial break, no less. He wonders what Will said to convince her, or if he even had to say much at all besides “I’m sorry and I love you.” As much as it’s none of Jim’s business, he really fucking hopes there was an apology in there, because even though it was pretty clear all along that he still loved her, Will has spent much of the last couple of years treating her like shit, hurting her over and over, punishing her for a mistake she made years ago. Now here they are, together, tucked against a wall, away from everyone else, giving the occasional wave when someone signals their intention to leave and head home. He’s half-hidden behind the screen so he takes the opportunity to watch them, and he can see instantly that even though she’s clearly every inch as exhausted as she has been for weeks now (Jerry fucking Dantana has a lot to answer for), she’s also happy, the kind of happy that he’s never seen in her before.

They’ve been through a lot, Jim and Mackenzie; he’s seen her hurt, sad, desolate, he’s seen her in pain, both physically and emotionally, he’s seen her determined and driven, and he’s more than familiar with her patented “I’m fine” act, but he’s never seen this Mackenzie. This Mackenzie looks like a weight has been lifted from her shoulders, and she looks like a few nights of decent sleep might actually be possible now, and might actually start to make a difference. He has a feeling too that Will is going to dedicate himself completely to making sure she gets some rest, to reminding her that eating is essential, and even though Jim won’t be sharing this opinion with him, it’s exactly what he thinks Will _should_ be doing; focusing on those things, proving himself, putting her happiness before anything else, after all he’s put her through.

It’s none of his damn business, he knows that, but it’s going to take a while to get used to being in a room with them together and not wondering who will throw the first verbal punch and what might trigger it. It’ll take even longer, he thinks, to accept he doesn’t have to be constantly ready to take her side (and frankly, it’s always going to be her side) if he’s dragged into the middle of one of their battles. He watches them as Will says something that makes her smile before leaning closer, murmuring into her ear, whatever he says causing the smile to blossom wider across her lips as she nods and reaches for his hand.

Relationships may not be his specialist area, but even he can see that Will and Mackenzie are right for each other, that no matter how difficult things have been, how stubborn one or both of them have been, the only end result that was going to make them truly happy was this one. When she leans up to kiss her new fiancé, he feels like he should look away but he can’t quite seem to manage it, it’s like watching a film you never thought would actually get made, or reading a book where the resolution comes on the page you least expected it to. He finally does look away but not before noticing her hand grasping Will’s, their fingers threaded tightly together, and he’s not sure he would have thought of Will as the hand holding type…and actually, it’s likely that he's not, that it's only Mackenzie’s hand he ever wanted to hold.

Watching as Will peels himself reluctantly away, he turns back to the screen, aware that he positioned himself at the news alerts desk but has been staring across the room for the past five minutes. He scrolls back, confident he hasn't missed anything vital, and when he lifts his eyes from the feed, he sees Mackenzie standing in front of him, the pallor of her skin screaming exhaustion, while the smile playing at her lips and the light in her eyes reflect pure joy.

"Have you been working this whole time?" She quirks an eyebrow and he shrugs.

"No," he says quickly. "Not the _whole_ time, but someone needs to be on the desk, and I-"

"You're not really happy unless you're working?" She tucks her hair behind her ear and frowns at him.

"Are you seriously asking me that question?" He sits back, running his hands through his already messy hair as he looks up at her. "I mean, _you_ , Mac, of all people."

"Alright, I admit..." She pauses, yawns, and continues without a beat. "I may have found most of my happiness in working until-"

"Until midnight every night?" He stops her, amused now at her efforts to defend herself against his totally true accusations.

"Until _now_ , Jim." She crosses her arms in front of her, smirking. "But that's not the case anymore, or it won't be from now on anyway."

"I'm happy for you," he says, smiling at her. "You know that, right?"

"I do." She smiles back at him, plays absently with the ring newly in place on her finger, an outrageously large diamond that she could do real damage with should she swing it in anyone's direction. "Go and get another drink, enjoy the party. We're going to head out now, I think."

"Yeah, it's been quite a night for you, I guess you have..." He glances at the screen at an alert, yellow so he carries on. "I guess you two have a lot of talking to do."

"We do, you're right, but that's not what we'll be doing tonight," she says, grinning at him when a blush moves into his cheeks. "When we were away, do you remember the days when it was so hot we could barely think? Do you remember what you used to say when I got snappy, when the fucking sunscreen kept running into my eyes on camera and I was just...irritable?"

"Yeah," he says, nodding because the summers were brutal and he remembers all too well what he used to hang on to. "I used to say when this is all over there'll be a tall glass of cool beer waiting for us, I used to tell you to focus on that. Right?"

"Right, but all those times I never once thought about a cool beer at the end of it, I just thought about..." She pauses, sighs and smiles again. "Well, I guess Will was _my_ cold beer."

"Did you just say you wanted a beer?" Will appears at her side, frowning slightly at her, the frown lifting when she turns to him and grins.

"God, no," she says, letting him drape her scarf gently around her neck before taking her coat out of his hands. "All I want now is to go home, Billy."

"Alright, honey, let's go." Will turns and nods at Jim, giving him a faint smile. "'Night, Jim. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, tomorrow," he replies, refusing to think about how little sleep he's going to get tonight, although it's clearly going to be more than the two people standing in front of him. "Get some sleep, Mac."

"Oh, she will." Will slides an arm around her shoulder and pulls her to him, pressing a kiss to the side of her head, and Jim watches her eyes flutter closed in response to his touch.

"Eventually," she murmurs, smirking at Jim before they turn to leave.

He watches them cross the newsroom, saying goodbye to the staff members they pass, before Mackenzie's hand finds Will's again as they reach the door. The ACN of tomorrow feels like a different place, a happier one, and as he heads for a beer, he thinks he's going to like it.

 

**Neal**

It’s not a new development, Mackenzie running herself so ragged that at about three in the afternoon she will often stop, lean against the closest desk and close her eyes for a few seconds, absently rubbing the back of her neck until she’s ready to get going again. What _is_ a new development is that Will now seems to sense exactly when she’s about to hit that point, and somehow he’s there, ready for it, no matter where in the office she is.

Today it's Neal she just happens to be talking to, she's been talking to him for ten minutes, telling him something about their Twitter feed (something he already knows, has already looked into, but still he lets her talk) when she loses her thread halfway through her sentence. She sighs and rests a hand on his desk, smiling faintly at him, shaking her head. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Will approach and wonders if he really does have some kind of radar where Mackenzie is concerned, a chip in his brain that alerts him to the very moment she's about to run out of steam. She can't possibly see him, yet she seems to know he's there, and not for the first time Neal wonders how two people so completely in tune with each other could have managed apart for so long. And then he remembers, they managed terribly, and it's only in the month since Will came to his senses that he's seen either of them looking truly relaxed, genuinely content.

Will catches his eye over Mackenzie's shoulder, sending a half smile in his direction as he slides his hand gently across the back of her neck, his fingers resting on her shoulder, his thumb rubbing slowly over her skin. Instantly she relaxes, leans back into him, and when he seems to hit a particularly tender spot, she bites her lip and Neal feels suddenly like he's intruding, even though they're the ones standing right in front of _his_ desk. He watches as she toys with her engagement ring, a slow and relieved smile gracing her lips. Damn, if this is what Will's attempt to soothe her knotted muscles does to her he can only imagine her reaction to his hands on her in private...

"Do you have a few minutes?" Will murmurs into her ear, his hand still resting on the back of her neck.

"I'm kind of in the middle of something here with Neal," she says, nodding in his direction.

"I've got it, Mac, it's totally fine," he says, gesturing to his screen. "To be honest, I was on top of this about twenty minutes ago."

"So I've just been standing here wasting my breath for the last five minutes?" She rolls her eyes at him and he grins at her until she shakes her head and a faint smirk appears on her face.

"Then yes, I guess I do have a few minutes." She turns to Will who moves his hand from her neck to her shoulder before running it slowly down her arm, brushing his thumb across her wrist before letting go. "What's up?"

"Nothing, I just...I'm going to go get some air and I thought you might want to come?" His tone is casual, and Neal silently salutes his tactics, letting her think he's the one who could use a break, by default giving her the ten minutes out of the office she needs.

"It's three-thirty, Will." Neal almost laughs aloud at her incredulous tone, instead focusing hard on his screen. "We have a meeting at four."

"Right. Which means we have half an hour," he says, and Neal knows he's seconds away from winning this battle, and he has to admit, it's impressive. "Plenty of time."

"I'm onto you, McAvoy, don't you think for a second that I'm not." She narrows her eyes and Neal wonders if his certainty in Will's impending success was misplaced. "It's not air you want, it's one of those ridiculously sugar filled seasonal drinks, with the whipped cream and the...the crunchy things on the top. That's what you want."

"Look, its fine, if you're busy then don't worry about it. I can pop out, take a quick walk, be back in plenty of time for the meeting," he says, and Neal watches as he squeezes her hand and makes like he's about to turn away.

"I didn't say I _wasn't_ going to come with you..." She sighs and turns back to Neal, smiling, the kind of happy smile it took him and the rest of the staff a while to get used to after election night. "I'll check in with you in a while, okay?"

"Sure, yeah." He waves her away, returning her smile and just about managing not to laugh aloud at the satisfied look Will gives him as they turn to leave.

Yeah, this round goes to Will.

 

**Jenna**

At first she just thought it was because it was still new, she thought it was just Mackenzie still trying to get used to being able to touch Will without awkwardness, without the look in her eyes that seemed for so long to be constantly awaiting a rebuff. Two weeks after they got engaged she realised it had become something set in stone, a ritual, their little way of connecting before the show, and she likes that she's generally the only one who sees it.

Glancing in through the door before she knocks, she pulls back and lingers for a little longer than usual, unable to drag her gaze away from them. Her roommate jokes about the crush she has on her boss, so often that she has her denial act finely tuned, but as she watches Mackenzie's hands deftly knotting Will's tie, the sweet smile on her face letting him know how much she enjoys this nightly routine, she can admit her roommate has a point. It's hard _not_ to crush on someone as impressive, someone who has all the attributes she wishes she had herself, and someone whose final piece has fallen into place, the ring on her finger the thing she was waiting for to complete the picture. Jenna figures that if she's ever even half as good at her job as the woman she's currently looking at, as confident in her abilities, and damn, if she's looking as hot in fifteen years as Mackenzie does she'll be more than happy.

She sees Will's hands move to Mackenzie's waist, watches as she giggles in response, and remembers the days when seeing a smile on Mackenzie's face (on either of their faces, actually) was a rarity, and one that reached her eyes even more elusive. She wonders how they are at home, if they're completely different away from the office, or if this is just them now, and the only difference at home is that nobody's watching. Not that they probably think anyone is watching now, and fuck, she really shouldn't be standing here peering through the door at them, she should be knocking on the door to give them their thirty minute call. She sighs and shakes herself out of her fog, stepping forward and tapping on the door before stepping inside and smiling brightly at them, not surprised when neither of them seems to even notice she's there.

"Um, thirty minutes?" She wonders why the hell she's just phrased it as a question when it's a fact, an indisputable fact, that they have thirty minutes before the show starts.

"Hmm?" Mackenzie turns slightly, her hands still resting on Will's collar, her thumbs on the tie she's just finished knotting.

"Thirty minutes." She repeats herself, noticing Will's fingers moving slowly over the silk of Mackenzie's shirt as he looks at her and nods.

"Did wardrobe give you options, Jenna?" Mackenzie runs her hands down Will's tie for the final time before turning fully to where she's still hovering beside the door.

"Options? They handed me one suit, one shirt, and two ties," she answers, shrugging slightly, unsure of the reason for the question, but not sensing anything to suggest she did anything wrong. "I just picked the one I thought would look best. I can go back and ask for the other one, if you think-"

"Good choice, I like it." Mackenzie smiles at her and squeezes Will's hand briefly before letting go and reaching for her notepad on the corner of his desk. "Thanks Jenna, we'll be right there."

Nodding, she backs up, colliding slightly with the door, stepping around it, wondering just how much more clumsy she could possibly look right now as she attempts to make her exit. Not that they will notice, having long gone back to seeing nothing in the room besides each other, Mackenzie batting Will's hand away when he tries to reach for her notes, Will smirking in return. Making a mental note to give them five more minutes, she smiles and steps out, closing the door quietly behind her.

She still thinks it’s funny how, if asked, Will would say Jenna worked for him, when in reality it's Mac who calls the shots, and it always has been. Another of Mackenzie's many admirable traits is her ability to be completely in control while somehow convincing Will that he's the one in charge of at least _some_ of what they do. At least now they're engaged, there are fewer fights that she finds herself in the middle of, wondering if she should interrupt, try to escape from, or stand like a statue in the hope that neither of them will even notice she's there. Looking around the newsroom, she thinks about how different everything feels now, how much more relaxed, and how the whole team somehow breathed a collective sigh of relief on election night, suddenly realising that things were finally as they should be. Checking her watch once more, she smiles and heads back to her desk.

 

**Charlie**

He won't claim to have had any hand in Will finally coming to his senses, but he absolutely takes the credit for hiring Mackenzie, for being the one who knew the slightly beaten down woman with a beer in a her hand at eleven in the morning still had what it took to be the industry's best EP. He always knew too that Will needed her, even if it was the last fucking thing he'd admit to at the time. Valentine's Day last year looked a hell of a lot different, Nina showing up on Will's arm while Mackenzie was conveniently hit with a migraine and called in sick, meaning she didn't have to watch as he paraded his disastrous relationship right under her nose.

So he's happy this year to lean back, drink in hand, noting that the heart on Will's door is still intact, and grinning at the huge vase of flowers taking up half of Mackenzie's desk. He watches Sloan chatting to Mackenzie, each of them smiling, Mackenzie's hands doing much of the talking as always, Sloan's eyes wide at whatever story she's listening to. He sees Will standing with Elliot, guessing that home fucking improvements are the topic there, considering it's all they ever seem to talk about since Will and Mackenzie embarked on their apartment renovations.

He's so busy watching his staff, taking the opportunity to soak up the happy mood in the room, that he doesn't notice Leona appear beside him until she elbows him, quirking an eyebrow when he turns to her.

"What's on your mind?" she asks, taking a sip from the glass in her hand. "I sidle up here, in my finest dress, looking absolutely fucking fantastic, and have to prod you before you even realise I'm here. What's up?"

"Actually, nothing at all, everything's great, and I was just standing here thinking exactly that, how much things have changed, how good everything is here these days, you know?" He smiles at her, watching as she returns it with a small shake of her head.

"You getting sentimental on me, Charlie Skinner?" Her eyes narrow and he laughs. "Listen, just because Hallmark says it's the day for it, doesn't mean I'm buying that shit for a second."

"Just taking a moment, that's all," he says, gesturing to where Will is sauntering towards Mac, his eyes fixed on her as he approaches. "I mean, seriously, Leona, could you have imagined this for a fucking second last Valentine's Day? Or on any damn day before election night?"

"Can't say I spent a whole lot of time thinking about it." She shrugs but she doesn't fool him. He sees the sparkle in her eyes, she knows as well as she does that things are happier around the place these days. "I _will_ admit that McAvoy not having a permanent frown on his face is an improvement, not to mention Mac no longer walking around every damn day looking like she lost a dollar and found a dime."

"Well, I've known Will for a long time, and it's damn good to see him happy again." He smiles, watching as Sloan heads over to chat to Maggie, leaving Will with Mackenzie, handing her a drink, his fingers brushing hers as he does. "Did you know I never met Mackenzie the first time they were together?"

"I didn't know that." Leona turns to him, eyebrows raised. "So the first time you met her was when you ran down to DC to offer her this job?"

"Yeah," he says, nodding and grinning at her. "It didn't matter. She needed a job, we needed an EP, and Will needed it to be her, even if the stubborn idiot didn't know it at the time."

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure he knows it now," Leona says with a smirk, lifting her little finger from her glass and waggling it in their direction. "I'm also pretty fucking sure he just told her he was heading to his office and she should follow him in there. Can't even wait until he gets her home, the sneaky old dog."

"There's no way you can possibly know that just from..." He stops when it becomes clear that she's right and Will squeezes Mackenzie's hand before heading in the direction of his office, her eyes following him the whole way. "Dammit Leona, you're good."

Mackenzie waits barely ten seconds before she gulps down the rest of her drink, discards the glass on the nearest desk, and starts to follow, biting her lip as she glances around briefly, apparently satisfied that nobody is watching her. She makes it most of the way to his office before she looks in their direction, realising her mistake the instant she makes eye contact but covering with a bright smile.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Mackenzie," he says, grinning at her as she reaches them, her gaze flicking briefly towards Will's door. "Would I be right in thinking this year is somewhat more enjoyable than last?"

"There's no way anything could be any _less_ enjoyable than last year, quite honestly," she says with a smile. "So yeah, this is nice. I didn't expect to see you down here. Or you, Leona. I mean, it's good to see you, obviously, I just didn't...you know."

"I keep hearing talk of people down here being happy these days, even our traditionally grumpy anchor," Leona says with a grin. "Had to come down and see it for myself."

"Well, it's true, and our newly happy anchor is all down to me, frankly." A smile lights up Mackenzie's face and the sight makes him so happy he can't resist reaching for her and pulling her into a hug.

"I'm still so fucking thrilled for the two of you, you know that, right?" he asks, pulling back and watching as she nods at him.

"Good God. Don't mind him, he's having a sentimental moment," Leona says, eyebrows raised again as she looks from Mackenzie's face to his. "It'll pass, I'm sure."

"He's forgiven." Mackenzie kisses him on the cheek and smiles at Leona. "And speaking of our grumpy anchor, I'm going to see where he's got to."

"Pretty sure he headed into his office." Leona smirks and he sees a faint blush start to colour Mackenzie's cheeks as she nods. "I bet he'd be more than happy for you to join him."

"Alright, I'll go...yeah." Ducking her head slightly, Mackenzie grins and takes a step towards Will's office before she stops and turns back. "Happy Valentine's Day, you two."

 

**Sloan**

Her calculations as she walks into the bar tell her that the eight o'clock staff are around four, maybe five drinks ahead of her, meaning she has some catching up to do. It's Friday night, she's totally down with this plan, and she can tell as soon as Mackenzie waves at her from where she's sitting that she's embracing Friday with equal enthusiasm. Waving back, she points to the bar, signalling her intention to get started on playing catch up, smiling when Mackenzie gives her a slightly lopsided grin. It's taken a while (the four months since Mackenzie said yes to Will, to be precise), but she's finally getting used to the fact that a tipsy Mackenzie nowadays is a happy Mackenzie, definitely a change for the better. It used to be that she would try to smile, to keep up her determined facade, only for drink number four to crash through it like a wrecking ball and for Sloan to end up trying to make sense of whatever she was trying to say through her tears. More often than not she would let herself cry for a few minutes before somehow managing to pull things back together and apologising, grabbing her things and making it halfway to the door before Sloan could process that she had even climbed down off her stool.

Ordering a large glass of wine, she quickly scans the couches, spotting most of the familiar faces, the notable exception being Don, his absence making her sigh so loudly the woman beside her at the bar moves away slightly. She doesn't know if he was planning to head over here after the show because she didn't ask him. He didn't ask her either, so here she is, again wondering if they'll ever reach a point where they might start to communicate these things like the actual adults they are, if either of them will ever broach the subject of what exactly it is they're doing. Until then she guesses she's going to keep finding herself here, wondering if he's about to walk in or if he's already halfway back to his apartment.

Across the room she sees Mackenzie's hand slide onto Will's knee, moving slowly up his thigh, stopping only when his hand covers hers and he leans down to whisper something into her ear, something that makes her giggle, which in turn causes a smile to spread across his lips. For so long she wasn't sure she could picture Will like this, a softer Will, the Will that Mackenzie insisted was there even when it seemed like he was destined to be permanently angry, committed to a lifetime of unhappiness. She watches them at the office sometimes and they fascinate her, their little touches, secret smiles, the brushing of hands and tangling of fingers when they think no one is looking, yet still they're the same as they were before. That's it, she guesses, they're the same people, just with something extra added into the mix; the fact that they love each other and neither is pretending otherwise anymore.

Taking her wine and making her way across the room she initially perches precariously on the edge of the couch, thankful when Martin stands up opposite and gestures to his seat.

"You can sit, I have to head out of here anyway," he says, slugging down the last of his drink and setting the glass on the table. "I have a softball game at ten in the morning."

"Why?" The genuine confusion in Mackenzie's voice, and the baffled look on her face makes Sloan snort as she gladly takes the seat she's being offered.

"Why am I playing softball or why is it at ten?" Martin asks, pulling his jacket on and matching her frown.

"Yes," Mackenzie says, her frown deepening. "All of those things, both of those things, on a Saturday?"

"I know." Martin nods, grinning. "I mean, I don't know, I just agreed to it and now I'm like, stuck with it."

"That's really terrible." Mackenzie shakes her head and reaches for her drink, chasing the olive around the glass, concentration written firmly across her face. "I mean, it's not genocide or war, or...you know, famine, but still...on a _Saturday_?"

"Right, yeah, I know." Martin shrugs and grins again. "Anyway, goodnight."

"Sloan!" Mackenzie's smile and faintly surprised tone confirms Sloan's initial thought that the fresh martini on the table is her friend's fourth. "Where's Don?"

"I have absolutely no idea," she says quickly, taking a large mouthful of her wine before taking her jacket off and throwing it aside.

"Billy, did you know Don is perfectly happy with his name?" Mackenzie turns her attention back to Will, looking up at him, her eyes wide, her cheeks flushed pink. "I had a conversation with him about it once. Don. He's totally okay with being called Don. Isn't that funny?"

"Is it?" Will smiles down at her with such a look of complete adoration that it would be sickening if it wasn't so fucking sweet.

"So..." Mackenzie leans forward towards her, grinning, not moving her hand from where it sits on Will's thigh. "If Don's not here now, which he's not, that means you have plans with him this weekend, right? And if not, why not?"

Briefly, she thinks crying drunk Mackenzie was easier than grinning Mackenzie who, now she has Will, seems to be making it her mission to become the Cupid of ACN. It's strangely sweet, if it's directed at someone else...

"You should call him, tell him you want to go for brunch," Mackenzie says, reaching for her drink, a look of satisfaction on her face like she just solved everything.

"It's approaching midnight, Kenzie, I think it's a little late, or early, for brunch." She smirks, knowing that's not what she meant but stalling however she can until Mackenzie hopefully forgets what she was talking about and moves onto something else.

"Not now, Sloan! Tomorrow morning, you should go for brunch tomorrow _morning_." Mackenzie grins, first at her, then at Will. "We go for brunch all the time, it's so nice. I mean, we mostly go for brunch because we don't have a kitchen right now, but even if we did we'd still go. Yep, you should totally go for brunch. Shouldn't they, Will?"

"What? Oh, yeah, sure." He nods but the look on his face suggests he was in no way listening to the conversation in front of him.

"Kenzie, can we drop this? I don't know if Don is heading over here tonight, we don't have plans together this weekend, and that's...well, that's kind of it," she says, sighing and picking up her glass, taking a huge, desperate gulp before giving Will a pleading look.

Will nudges Mackenzie's shoulder, and Sloan sees his fingers tighten their hold on hers before he leans down and whispers into her ear. She can't hear what he says, but it really doesn't matter, she just hopes whatever it is succeeds in diverting Mackenzie's attention onto something other than her weekend plans (or lack of) with Don. It occurs to her that drink number four always seems to be the border between Mackenzie remembering she's in a room with her entire staff, and her getting more hands-on with Will than she ever would with a clear head.

"My fiancé here thinks I'm interfering," Mackenzie says, smirking as Will nuzzles into her, his lips dancing briefly down her neck before he pulls back. Sloan wonders if they have any idea how intimate these little gestures are, how much it feels like watching something that really should be private. "I think he's wrong, obviously, but it's late and...well, we may not have a kitchen, and our bathroom is barely there either, but we do have a bed. A mattress, technically, but, you know, I-"

"Good for you." Sloan stops her before she lists every single work in progress in their current construction site of an apartment.

"Oh, it _is_ good for me." Mackenzie smirks and when her hand squeezes Will's thigh Sloan doesn't miss his sharp intake of breath. "And if Will finishes his drink so we can get out of here, it won't work out too badly for him either."

Sloan snorts as Will downs his almost full glass in one swift move before grabbing Mackenzie's hand and pulling her to her feet, his arm sliding around her waist as she sways slightly, startled.

"Yeah, go home," Sloan says with a laugh. "Nobody wants to see their bosses smooching when all they're trying to do is have a beer on a Friday night."

Will moves aside to pick up his jacket and suddenly Don is standing there, somehow having snuck in without her noticing. He smiles at her, not quite in the way Will gazes at Mackenzie, but hell, baby steps...

"Don's here!" Mackenzie grins as she states the obvious, clapping him on the back and she moves to pass him. "I'm glad you're here, Don. We were just leaving, and Sloan was just saying how she'd love to go to brunch tomorrow. Weren't you, Sloan?"

"Good _night_ , Kenzie." Sloan mumbles as she shakes her head, watching Will do the same as he steers Mackenzie away from the couch, draping her jacket over her shoulders.

Stopping as they reach the door, Mackenzie turns back and points at Don, making some kind of heart shape with her fingers and grinning when Will wraps his arm around her and drops a kiss into her hair. As Don moves to sit next to her, Sloan admits that even though it can be annoying and her relentless enthusiasm can be exhausting, being happy suits Mackenzie. It _really_ suits her.


End file.
